Code for Africa (CfA) has an immediate vacancy for a fact-checker to join PesaCheck, East Africa’s first verification and fact-checking initiative, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
PesaCheck is incubated by Code for Africa and works to verify often confusing numbers quoted by public figures across East Africa. The initiative supported by the innovateAFRICA fund, the International Budget Partnership and Code for Africa affiliates in Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda.
About the Role
You will be joining PesaCheck’s fact-checking team. The team is responsible for checking and verifying statements and content from various sources to help the public separate fact from fiction using a range of journalism and digital tools.
The team works closely with fellows in each of the countries where PesaCheck operates to verify and publish information and produce stories that are then published on pesacheck.org and are syndicated with various media partners for republication.
In delivering their mandate, you will be working to hold public figures accountable and also ensure that the media is accurate in its reporting and coverage of issues of public interest.
Who You Are
You have experience with digital journalism, and have an eye for accuracy and truth. You notice when the facts don’t exactly add up, and your first instinct is to double-check the sources. You follow the news keenly, have a well-honed nonsense detector, are impartial, have superb numeracy and analytical skills, are able to break down complex issues and explain them in a way that any audience can understand, and have some experience working within a newsroom setting. You are a self-starter who does independent research, takes initiative and goes above and beyond to deliver results. You might be looking for a new challenge and an opportunity to advance your skills and career.
What You’ll Do
- Identify important claims in the public domain that can and should be fact-checked.
- Undertake research to verify or debunk claims identified and writing explainer articles on how you arrive at your findings in an easily understandable way.
- Contribute to the development of training materials and organise tutorials and training sessions to be used to conduct trainings on the basics of verification and fact-checking.
- Support the PesaCheck fellows in checking and verifying claims identified from various sources.
- Spearhead verification and fact-checking within the Code for Africa network.
- Research latest trends and industry standards around verification and fact-checking to ensure that the fact-checking team is ahead of the curve, and use this information to assist the managing editor to review and document latest best practices for the benefit of the fact-checking team.
What You’ve Got
- Strong organisational skills and ability to deliver results within deadlines
- Demonstrable data journalism skills
- Strong decision-making skills
- The ability to handle large volumes of work within a limited time period and deliver consistent results.
- Excellent knowledge of proper compositional practices to aid in writing and proofreading
- Excellent written and verbal skills, with English as your primary work language alongside Kiswahili.
- Amazing presentation skills
- Critical thinking skills
- The ability to work with minimal supervision
- Proficient in using Google Docs, Sheets (Excel) and Slides (Powerpoint). Working knowledge of management tools like Trello and Slack is highly desirable
Extra Points If…
- You’ve got a journalism background or training in the same.
- You have 1+ years work experience
How to Apply:
Fill in this form: http://j.mp/2R8Xwzg by 10 October 2018.
About The Federation:
Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent’s largest federation of data journalism and civic technology laboratories, with labs in four countries and affiliates in a further six countries. CfA manages the $1m/year innovateAFRICA.fund and $500,000/year impactAFRICA.fund, as well as key digital democracy resources such as the openAFRICA.net data portal and the GotToVote.cc election toolkit. CfA’s labs also incubate a series of trendsetting initiatives, including the PesaCheck fact-checking initiative in East Africa, the continental africanDRONE network, and the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR) that spearheaded Panama Papers probes across the continent. CfA is an initiative of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
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